This disclosure relates to a system, method and computer readable medium for use in providing a treatment regime to a patient. The disclosure has particular relevance to monitoring and automating a patient treatment regime.
In a typical relationship between a medical practitioner and a patient, the medical practitioner may prescribe a course of treatment, which may include physical and pharmaceutical therapies. However, once prescribed, the onus falls onto the patient to follow the prescribed course of treatment and there is limited opportunity for the practitioner to monitor the patient outside of visits by the patient to the medical practitioner.
What is required is a system, method and computer readable medium capable of providing increased monitoring of a patient treatment regime.
In accordance with one embodiment of the disclosure, there is provided a method of monitoring a patient treatment regime prescribed by a medical practice, the method comprising determining at least one parameter of the patient treatment regime; determining a query dependent on said at least one parameter; executing said query on at least one data source to generate a query result; determining from said query result at least one action; and performing said at least one action.
In accordance with one embodiment of the disclosure, there is provided a method of automating a treatment regime prescribed by a first medical practitioner to a patient, the method comprising determining at least one parameter of the treatment regime; determining a supplier of the at least one parameter; and causing a supply of said at least one parameter to said patient.
In accordance with one embodiment of the disclosure, there is provided a system for use in providing a treatment regime to a patient, the system comprising at least one database storing one or more patient preferences; at least one notification system; at least one data source; at least one processor; wherein the at least one processor is configured to receive at least one parameter of a patient treatment regime; wherein the at least one processor is configured to generate at least one query dependent on said at least one parameter; wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the query on the at least one data source to produce a query result; wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine an action dependent on said query result; wherein the system is configured to generate a notification dependent on said action; and wherein the notification system is configured to provide said notification to said patient.
In accordance with one embodiment of the disclosure, there is provided a management system for use in providing a treatment regime to a patient, the management system comprising at least one processor; a database storing one or more patient notification preferences; wherein the processor is configured to generate a notification to said patient, said notification dependent on at least one parameter of said treatment regime; and wherein the generated notification is dependent on at least one of said one or more patient notification preferences.
In accordance with one embodiment of the disclosure, there is provided a computer readable medium comprising a set of instructions executable on at least one processor, the instructions comprising determining a query dependent on said at least one parameter; executing said query on at least one data source to generate a query result; determining from said query result at least one action; and performing said at least one action.
The invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to specific embodiments and to the accompanying drawings in which:
In many practices, such as medical, dental, legal practices and the like, a practice management system is utilized to control patient/client information gathering, billing, scheduling of appointments and other day to day data requirements. Typically, the practice management system is isolated to a particular practice, with little interaction between separate practices. An isolated practice constrains the processing of data to the data stored within the practice management system. In a medical practice for example, a medical practitioner may prescribe a course of treatment to a patient. However, the only information available to the practitioner for monitoring the patient's treatment is derived directly from the patient, such as through follow-up consultations.
A system in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure is shown generally at 10 in
The term medical practice used herein is to be considered broadly as including many different types of practices providing health related services to patients, clients or customers. A medical practice is considered to include, without limitation, the practice of a doctor, general practitioner, dentist, surgeon, specialist, physiotherapist, chiropractor, optometrist, massage therapist, nutritionist, providers of natural remedies, and all similar practices and their equivalents.
Also shown in
The management network 11 may interface with other information sources, such as pharmaceutical providers 15, referred practitioners and government bodies 16, for example, Center for Disease Control (CDC), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), regional health departments, etc. By linking to a range of information sources, there are greater opportunities for providing enhanced monitoring and patient care.
The specific form of the interfaces described herein may be embodied using any suitable communications devices known to the person skilled in the art. Communications devices may be based on wireless or wired devices and employ any suitable communications standards for data transfer and manipulation.
The system 10 is initialized by entering patient details of a patient 19 into the practice management system 12a which may include details of the prescribed treatment, details of a next appointment, billing details, personal patient details, a responsible party to be contacted on behalf of the patient, for example, a nurse, carer, parent, guardian, etc. Some or all of these details may also be uploaded from the practice management system to the database 13. Such details may be provided, for example, when the patient 19 attends the medical practice 12a for treatment.
At the time of a consultation or at some other time, which may be before or after the consultation, the patient 19 may provide other patient preferences, such as notification preferences, to the management network 11. For example, as described in the co-pending application reference above, a patient may specify a preferred message delivery type such as email, SMS, phone call etc and the requisite contact details. The patient may also specify time dependent preferences such as a work phone number or work email to be used during business hours as well as home phone number or home email to be used outside of business hours. The patient may provide their preferences to the management network 11 through an interface 17, such as a web interface direct to the management network 11. Alternatively, the patient may provide their notification preference data through a practice management system, for example, practice management system 12a.
In addition, a medical practitioner 18, such as a doctor or a nurse for example, at the medical practice 12a can register preferences, such as notification preferences, filtering preferences, treatment regime data and the like with the management network 11, for example through a web based form, or by uploading data from the practice management system to the management network 11.
Through the various above described links and associations, the management network 11 is able to access an extensive set of patient related data. These relationships can thus be brought together to provide different techniques and strategies in patient care.
Once the system 10 is initialized, a practitioner 18 is able to specify filters for monitoring and/or automating patient care. Using the filters, the management network 11 is able to search and filter data from the various sources illustrated in
The management network is shown in more detail in
With reference to
When the patient 19 is supplied with the prescribed pharmaceutical, a record 42 is made in the data management systems 43 of the pharmaceutical network.
At some determined time, the management network executes a query on information provided by the pharmaceutical network 15. In one example, the query filters the data to determine the quantity of pharmaceutical provided to the patient over a period of time. In one embodiment, the results of the query are provided to the practice management system for further review. In one embodiment, the filter may specify acceptable limits for consumption and hence re-ordering of the pharmaceutical. If the query results indicate that an acceptable quantity has been provided to the patient, then no further action may be necessary. However, if the query determines that the patient has been provided with either insufficient or excess quantity of the pharmaceutical, then an alarm notification may be generated and provided to the patient and/or to the medical practitioner though the notification system 14. An alarm notification to the patient, or responsible party, may include a request that the patient contact the doctor for further advice and consultation, a reminder to take their prescribed medication, a warning against taking too much of the prescribed medication, or any suitable notification. In addition to providing the alarm notification, the system may register that the patient is to be monitored more closely and thus schedules the query to be executed with greater frequency.
The prompting of the data query may be controlled from the practice management system, for example, through some suitable reminder tracking system, or may be controlled from within the management network, for example, through regular scheduling. In one embodiment, the management network may be configured to periodically download filters, for example, daily, weekly, etc, from the different practice management systems 12a, 12b and execute queries based on those filters either at the time of download or at some other time, for example as per a query schedule downloaded with the filters.
In one embodiment, illustrated in
When prescribing a therapy parameter, a medical practitioner may provide a referral to a specific practitioner at a specific medical practice. Alternatively, the prescribing practitioner may specify that a therapy is required from any one of a class of therapists. For example, physiotherapy may be provided by any suitable physiotherapist at any suitable practice. In the present example, a query may execute on all medical practices within the system 10 to determine those practices that provide physiotherapy and then determine whether any of the physiotherapists have provided treatment to the patient. An action taken on the query results may be dependent on all visits to all physiotherapists or selected visits.
The system 10 provides an additional opportunity for automating the provision of a prescribed treatment regime. In an embodiment described with reference to
In one embodiment, the supply of services to patients in accordance with a prescribed treatment regime can also be automated. For example, a prescribed treatment may include regular physiotherapy, chiropractic, psychological, specialist or other similar treatment that might be offered, for example, through a distinct or separate practice, such as the medical practice managed by practice management system 12b. A filter associating the patient with the treatment may be executed on the management network to analyze an appointment schedule of the practice management system 12b. The query may determine an available appointment for the patient based on appointment scheduling preferences specified by the patient in the database 13, such as the patient's availability. When a suitable vacancy is found, the query automatically schedules the appointment and provides the patient with a notification detailing the appointment through the notification system 14. Automatically scheduling appointments may also include automatically scheduling of home visits by a medical practitioner, thereby aided in the care of house bound patients.
An advantage of the present disclosure is in the monitoring of patients with specific conditions that require preventative medication. Conditions may include, without limitation, diabetes, hypertension, heart conditions and many psychological conditions such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia etc. Such patients may require seldom visits to their respective medical practitioners provided that they are taking their regular course of medication at the required dose. The above described system may include a query that determines all patients with a specific condition and the rate at which they are replenishing their medication. Patients that have not re-ordered for a period, such as a dosage period, may be sent a reminder notification that their medication is likely to be nearing its consumption. The dosage period will generally be the period for which a packaged dosage of the medication is intended to last. For example, if a course of medication requires the consumption of one tablet per day and there are 14 tablets in a packaged dose, then a reminder notification may be provided to the patient if the query determines that no order has been made by the patient after, say, 12 days. If the query determines that no order has been placed by the patient for a period longer than the dosage period, then a more urgent warning notification may be provided to the patient and/or the prescribing practitioner.
The embodiments described herein are not to be limited to monitoring and/or automating patient care by practitioners only. In one embodiment, instead of the filters being provided from the practice management systems, a filter may be provided by a third party, such as a government organization. For example, a government organization 16 may be interested in determining all patients across all practice management systems with a particular condition. In a further example, a medical body may design a filter to determine all patients for whom a particular pharmaceutical has been prescribed in order to determine whether practitioners are prescribing pharmaceuticals correctly.
Although embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated in the accompanied drawings and described in the foregoing description, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed, but is capable of numerous rearrangements, modifications, and substitutions without departing from the spirit of the invention as set forth and defined by the following claims. For example, the capabilities of the invention can be performed fully and/or partially by one or more of the blocks, modules, processors or memories. Also, these capabilities may be performed in the current manner or in a distributed manner and on, or via, any device able to provide and/or receive information. Further, although depicted in a particular manner, various modules or blocks may be repositioned without departing from the scope of the current invention. Still further, although depicted in a particular manner, a greater or lesser number of modules and connections can be utilized with the present invention in order to accomplish the present invention, to provide additional known features to the present invention, and/or to make the present invention more efficient. Also, the information sent between various modules can be sent between the modules via at least one of a data network, the Internet, an Internet Protocol network, a wireless source, and a wired source and via plurality of protocols.
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